


Doing as You're Told (except when you don't want to)

by quiet__tiger



Category: Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Contemplative, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 06:24:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10713993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiet__tiger/pseuds/quiet__tiger
Summary: Tim reflects on mentors, Bart, and Dick.





	Doing as You're Told (except when you don't want to)

**Author's Note:**

> Firmly set in Teen Titans 6 or 7, I'm not sure in which monthly the mentioned events occur.
> 
> Prompt: "Living In Your Shadow."
> 
> Originally posted to Livejournal 6th-Aug-2009.

Tim lay awake that night after the long Sunday that began with a brawl and ended with a night of football with his father. He should have expected half the Justice League to show up and intrude upon the Titans eventually. Intruding was what adults did.

It was just embarrassing. But at least he wasn’t alone in having his mentor chastise him. Bart got an earful from Wally, and Wonder Woman started it all with poor Cassie. At least Tim didn’t set Batman’s cape on fire, like Kon did to Superman.

A handful of Titans, a handful of adults trying to control them, spy on them, whatever it was they thought they were gaining by dropping by the Tower. Ridiculous, really. Ridiculous and damn annoying.

Thank God for Nightwing. If he hadn’t shown up all reasonable and forceful, there would probably still be an argument going on. Not that Gar and Kory weren’t good go-betweens, but… Yeah. Dick was better. Dick _knew_ them all, had worked with most of them, had at different times been the student and the teacher. He understood both groups of heroes better than almost anyone.

Tim’s mind shuffled to the conversation he had with Bart that morning, about Bart taking over the name of Kid Flash and changing his costume to one more similar to Wally’s. He’d told Bart that he’d be stuck in the Flash’s shadow. Bart hadn’t cared.

Or, really, Bart had scoffed. _You got it_ wrong, _Robin. The Flash is going to be in_ mine.

Tim smiled, even though his lip was still sore from last night. He had no doubt that Bart would do great things as Kid Flash and eventually The Flash. It still might be better to distance himself, but Bart couldn’t. The Flash was his legacy, and he would serve it well.

As for himself, well. It wouldn’t be easy to live up to Batman. Hell, it wasn’t now. And Dick varied between being almost as bad as Bruce and then Tim’s favorite person in the whole world.

Tim had donned the mask and cape knowing full well that he was the third Robin. He knew it wouldn’t be easy following in Dick’s and Jason’s shoes (or pixie boots). He had a lot to live up to and surpass. Because he _would_ surpass. Like Bart, he wanted to leave Dick in his dust as a hero, as a sidekick, and maybe even as his own persona one day. Not _Batman_ , hell no, but maybe he wouldn’t turn in the cape like he planned.

But either way, as emphasized today, following in Dick Grayson’s footsteps wasn’t such a bad thing. Definitely worse things to do. Everyone liked Dick, for good reason, and people trusted him and looked towards him _to_ follow him. He had the reputation of Batman but without the creepiness and problems.

Tim was lucky and he knew it.

He only hoped he remembered that the next time either Dick or Bruce drove him nuts.


End file.
